The longest underslung sorties I have done were in the Solomon Islands. There was a weekly requirement to resupply the police station on Rennel Island, some 135 N.M. south of Honiara, with diesel and rations. There was no fuel available at Rennell so the AS 332L we were using had to carry return fuel. This made it quite heavy. Five or six drums of diesel plus all the supplies brought the AUW to the maximum external load weight of 9.100kgs or 20.000lbs. Another drawback was a range of large hills on the south coast which went up to 5,000 ft. plus.
The net with the drums was attached to an 80 ft. strop so that and the net gave you enough height when to took up the load to jettison it and recover to land straight ahead OEI. When you took the weight the 30 degrees ambient ensured that both engines were knocking their respective 100% torque limits. However, by talking to the aircraft nicely it could be persuaded to advance into forward flight.
Captain’s brief: Should we lose an engine in the hover or before 45 knots we will bin the load and land straight ahead. After 45 knots we will see if we can hang on to it, if not we bin it. After 70 knots we will hang on to the load, fly it over the beach and then we will bin it.
When settled in the climb we turned south and there was this range of hills with their cumulus necklaces. We would climb at 70 knots and at 5,000 it would stop climbing. This was where lots of practice at cloud dodging in Borneo came in useful; reading the wind, escape routes etc.etc., the difference being that then I didn’t than have a 100 ft, conker hanging below me.
When we were through the gaps and over the sea we could descend to 1,000ft. and the aircraft would settle at 90 knots, no faster. Engage the autopilot, feet up, fags out and sit there for an hour before Rennel Island came up. The drop off and unload was normal though you couldn’t hang about because of your fuel. Back across the sea and sort out a way through the even bigger and thicker clouds before you ran out of fuel.
Same again next week.